Whaingaroa Harbour Care news
Whaingaroa Harbour Care says it is starting a seabird project with a Lottery Grant now to improve seabird nesting habitat for Oi. They will grow and plant 130 000 native plants this year with 50,000 going into the Wainui Reserve. The rest will be planted by our team of five over this winter. As well as that they will propagate another 100 000 for the following year 2020. 99% of these plants are being planted within the Whaingaroa Catchment.
Harboucare says it is fortunate that it now has paid work for its staff for years to come, especially with Whaingaroa Harbour Care turning 25 at the end this year. Harbour Care says that three new locals have been employed and they will all be paid the living wage .
Email from Fred Lichtwark to Waikato District Council about the planting project.
Kia ora all ,
Thank you Duncan and Noel,
Great to hear that areas will be set aside for the lottery grant funding received by Whaingaroa Harbour Care to be used on the Wainui Reserve .
The funding was granted for the enhancement of sea bird nesting habitat ( Oi ) only to be used on the steeper areas along the costal escapement . (Not available for any-other steep areas within the reserve .)
Approximately 10 000 plants will be planted within the existing fenced off areas , within the gully systems and along and within the coastal cliff . ( 5000 were planted last year )
Another 50 000 plants, that will need additional areas to be fenced off to continue planting . That land has just now been made available.
After another recent onsite meeting with Noel ,who has agreed to work alongside Harbour care, to free up land being steep less productive land. this will involve realigning some fence lines so the 50 000 plants can be accommodated. Harbour care staff will help with this work .
Harbour Care staff have already undertaken control of the more ugly weeds ( coastal ivy & blackberry, )Harbour care has just today employed three extra locals lads ( as permanent staff ) to start preparing the sites for tree planting by using weed-eaters / scrub-bars to cut holes into the deep kikuyu grass and gorse . So able to start pre-digging holes, while waiting for rains to come, before planting, a mix of thousands of very special less common locally sourced native plants from the Wainui reserve, previously planted by Harbour care that are now producing seed, that has been germinated and on grown over the last few years for this project .
Some of them being a very local almost extinct, white Kumarahou only found in a few sites on the West Coast between Kawhia and Aotea, that was common in Whaingaroa . The black tip Ngaio now only a handful of trees found in Te toto gorge . (Very different to the Tasmanian Ngaio that is not native to NZ that has been planted on the reserve and around Raglan )
including many the more common Heketara ( Coastal tree daisy ) but not abundant plus thousands of all the other more common coastal plants .
We will be expanding and enhancing costal escapement to be a showcase of what our West coast plant community used to look like pre-farming and in doing so providing nesting habitat that will have extensive pest controlled .
The new plantings will however will not be planted randomly but landscaped planted , so will not grow that would result in the removal any of the existing coastal views .
Nor will any be planted anywhere near the hang / paraglider takeoff area ..
This is a special project that will undoubtedly become another tourist attraction for our town .
WDC will end up with a further enhanced asset costing the rate payer nothing .
Thank you WDC, Noel and others for your support.
I’m very pleased a revision of the management plan is underway , and hope Whaingaroa Harbour Care will be able to assist in further plantings that may needed to be done on Wainui reserve on completing that review .
This project of 60 000 plants is not small nor is it of a really very large scale project ether .
If all the steep area’s were to be taken out of grazing ,and planted that is currently allowed by the management plan . It would guesstimate another 300 000 plants could easily be planted on those areas.
Again Harbour care could find funding from external grants costing the rate payer nothing and by doing so being able to offering that work as local employment .
We have not wanted to push ahead with planting the other steep areas elsewhere , as think the whole reserve should be looked at and mapped out to accommodate walking-trails, horse trails ,bike tracks ,first ,once they are plan for .. Then landscaped plantings take place . I would hope this new review will be accommodating .
My opinion :This reserve could be developed into an amazing peoples first recreational resource ( not cows) as well-as enhancing biodiversity and helping with carbon absorption , that I’m sure the next generation will be pleased with and the local kids may not go on strike .Then better protecting of the historic sites from further stock damage . Information signage or digital interactive media about the sites could be done by the school if encouraged .and plantings also helping with carbon absorbs-ion that I’m sure the next generation will be pleased with and the kids may not go on strike .Some electric car charging stations being placed on the reserve would be a great initiative too .I think as a town could attract even more tourist dollars doing this kind of sustainable development .
Cheers
Fred